Area: IS RESISTANCE REALLY FUTILE? - Mankind facing Technology in Science-Fiction Film and Television

Science in Science Fiction films has found an icon in the futuristicstatus quo of technology ever since Le Voyage dans la Lune andMetropolis. Utopias and Dystopias on big and small screen alike presentus with the 'what ifs' of tomorrow's scientific progress. In its course,the role of technology will have been developed from mediating betweenman and his surroundings towards replacing those surroundings (andeventually man himself?). The effects of this evolution on the humanbody, mind, and soul have been the subject of countless dramatizations,from Blade Runner and I, Robot to The Island and Gattaca, as well as StarTrek â€" The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, or Futurama. How dosuch films represent future science and scientists, and what are theirroles and functions? What do Science Fiction films' representations oftechnological development tell us about today's hopes and concerns? Inwhat way does the technological environment induce the adaption of humanlife? Where are the lines between human, cyborg, android, and machine?What about the social and political implications of the technocracies tocome?

This area investigates the effects of scientific and technologicaldevelopment on the conception of future identities, selves, and minds ofman/machine as portrayed through Science Fiction film and television.Panels may adress a wide range of topics, such as 'Memories of theFuture', 'Reproduction Tomorrow', 'Mind of the Machine', and others.Presentations may feature (but are not limited to) analyses of individualfilms and/or TV programs from the perspective of genre history,strategies of representation, narrative structures, or film technology,they may deal with the work of a single author or film maker, forexample 'Adaptions of the Philip K. Dick Stories', 'The Universeaccording to Gene Roddenberry', or 'Matrices and Makers'. Papers couldfocus on central topics such as alternate/virtual realities,technological catastrophies, future wars, man vs. machine,robots/androids/cyborgs, biotech and cloning, intelligent architecture,AI, transcendence, etc.

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but eachpresenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for second-round proposals: May 1, 2008

This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennialFilm & History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Filmand History. Speakers will include founder John Oâ€™Connor and editor PeterC. Rollins (in a ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University ofWisconsin Oshkosh); Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of theApocalypse, Disaster and Memory, and Lost in the Fifties: RecoveringPhantom Hollywood; Sidney Perkowitz, Charles Howard Candler Professor ofPhysics at Emory University and author of Hollywood Science: Movies,Science, & the End of the World; and special-effects legend Stan Winston,our Keynote Speaker. For updates and registration information about theupcoming meeting, see the Film & History website(www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory).